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Tober:
Harajuku No Emo Ko
When still a wee lad, entering into my physical, emotional, and artistic levels of maturity (still stunted, incidentally), a little blue album showed up on an episode of MTVs 120 Minutes in the form of a ditty about sweaters. For me, Weezers blue album began the slow descent into musical snobbery and superiority of taste, and became the benchmark for all indie rock to come. Its hard, as a reviewer, to resist the temptation to make comparisons between this band and that, to give the reader a sense, in writing, of what an album actually sounds like. To re-invoke the name of the kings of progressive nerd-rock, it would be hard to review Tobers Harajuku No Emo Ko without referencing that which, for all intents and purposes, broke the ground and laid the foundation for a band like Tober to exist. Harajuku No Emo Ko is absolutely riddled with exactly the things that made the blue album so interesting, so unique, and so novel. The three-piece (guitar, bass, outrageously distorted synth) puts together a collection of upbeat and clever shout-outs to the Not So Great With Words set, echoing the clever insecurities of any high school indie rocker without the whiney overdramatic showings of an emo cry-fest. Encompassing so many topics, Tobers style of humorous pop culture-referencing makes comparing unrequited love to an old school lunchbox seem absolutely brilliant. And even if not brilliant, youre so engrossed, so entertained, and so understanding that the simple silliness of the analogy is disregarded in order to get right into the mix. Other songs stink of the kind of struggling analogy which, either though imitation or sheer integrity, sink in and stick. The rock of the album is straight distortion: distorted vocals with occasional quiet harmonies, guitar riffs following lyrical lines, heavy and high-pitched distorted synthesizers, and a simple four/four drum beat every time. The result is impressive in the sheer scope of the music; training from outrageous happiness to the bowels of melancholy, the sound changes are so subtle, so intentional and deliberate, as to come across as the most impressive type of music-making of all intelligent music-making. Perhaps encompassing exactly that sort of subtlety, the track Dear Miss Laura, Love Jimmy starts off with a mellow offbeat tempo and soft-spoken lyrics, the scratchy whininess of lead singer Adam Tobers pleas for understanding droning quietly into the first chorus. Boom, into the second verse, add levels. Pull it back for next verse. Build for next chorus. Build for next verse. Soft bridge, giant finish with jangling guitars and a wall of sound. Fade to quiet. Harajuku No Emo Ko sets out to make its own mark in the pop-reference, emotionally-challenged future of progressive nerd rock. This short serving of indie rock fills a certain void that has been left remarkably untouched for many years.
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